“The conservative majority in the house keeps on buying into big business arguments that are simply not supported by the facts.

“They have cleared a European Commission list of sectors requiring this form of subsidy, which ignores the Commission’s own research and the impact assessment made prior to their proposal.

“This means that we will be handing out billions of pollution permits worth dozens of billions of Euros, up to 2020, on the basis of flawed estimates of which polluting activities are at a risk of delocalisation to unfairly competing jurisdictions.

“This is all the more flagrant when surplus credits have been commoditised and speculated on. Current surplus allowances are estimated in the range of 1 billion units.

“By applying carbon prices that are between two to three times higher than those their own assessments warrant, the Commission has cast the net so wide that around 95% of polluting industry sectors, bar the power sector, qualifies for assistance.

“This makes a mockery of a flawed Emissions Trading Scheme, of the Commission’s regard for the research that supports their decisions and of the polluter pays principle that pro-market advocates claim to be so fond of.”

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The defeated motion to defeat the Commission decision can be accessed at: